Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Differential fluid etching apparatus – With microwave gas energizing means
Patent
1996-09-19
1998-04-07
Powell, William
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Differential fluid etching apparatus
With microwave gas energizing means
216 88, B44C 122
Patent
active
057359920
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a device for polishing samples of materials provided with a sample holder. It is more particularly used in metallography.
PRIOR ART
In metallography, analyses of samples or specimens of materials generally require a thorough preparation of the sample which it is wished to analyze. The process generally used for preparing the sample to be analyzed consists of: handling of the sample, obtain a substantially planar sample surface, to improve its planeity and then diamond-containing liquid in order to finish the polishing of the sample.
In order to implement the polishing operations of the preparation process of the sample to be analyzed, use is generally made of a polishing device like those proposed by BUEHLER. Several types of polishing device are described in the commercial documentation distributed by BUEHLER.
These commercially available polishing devices comprise a polishing plate or table, a polishing head having a sample support disk, as well as a polishing head control system. In such devices, the resin-encapsulated and cut up samples are in each case placed in an orifice of the support disk. It is obvious that each of these samples is placed in said orifice in such a way that its cut surface is directed towards the polishing table.
On said polishing table can be place different types of abrasive papers (e.g. 180, 400, 80 or even 1200 .mu.m) or a cloth to which has been added a diamond-containing liquid. Thus, the cut surface of each sample is rubbed on the polishing table with a view to finishing the planeity of said surface.
Such a process suffers from the disadvantage of requiring the encapsulation with resin of the sample to be analyzed. This sample encapsulation is essentially needed in order to maintain the sample in the support disk orifice during sample polishing.
Macrographic and micrographic observations can then be made of the polished sample. However, for sample analysis, i.e. the developing of the micro-structure of said material sample, it is necessary to carry out either a chemical etching, or a thermal etching. In most cases, no matter whether a chemical or a thermal etching is involved, it is necessary to strip the sample, because the generally used encapsulating resin is unable to withstand high temperatures (in the case of a thermal etching) or excessively corrosive media (in the case of a chemical etching). In addition, the most widely used procedure for stripping the sample of its resin involves slight heating so as to expand the resin and only recover the material sample. Only then can a chemical or thermal etching be carried out to reveal or develop the micro-structure of said material.
Moreover, in the case where it is wished to collect the sample, with a view to recovering the material in the case of radioactive materials (e.g. plutonium) or carry out a chemical or thermal etching as explained hereinbefore, it is necessary to use special resins which can be removed by slight heating. However, the resins used for encapsulating radioactive material samples are generally contaminated and must consequently be decontaminated or stored, which leads to supplementary waste or treatments.
Another disadvantage of this sample encapsulating process is its performance cost, because it involves encapsulating the sample with resin, then solidifying the resin, cutting up the encapsulated resin and finally polishing the encapsulated resin, which involves a relatively long time and therefore a high cost.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to obviate the aforementioned disadvantages. To this end, it proposes a material sample polishing device in which the samples can be placed without having to be previously encapsulated in resin. The device has a sample holder which can be fitted into an orifice of any random, commercially available support disk.
More specifically, the invention relates to a device for polishing samples of materials, each having a substantially planar face. This polishing device has a polishing ta
REFERENCES:
patent: 3549439 (1970-12-01), Kaveggia et al.
patent: 4534536 (1985-08-01), Nelson et al.
patent: 4600469 (1986-07-01), Fusco et al.
patent: 5593537 (1997-01-01), Cote et al.
Commissariat a l''Energie Atomique
Powell William
LandOfFree
Polishing device with sample holder does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Polishing device with sample holder, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Polishing device with sample holder will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-9373